Autoimmune diseases are generally associated with an alteration of the immune system and consequently, diagnostic tests are largely focused on the analysis of the immune response and the therapy based on immuno-suppression. Oppositely, the instant invention is premised on the idea that one of the pathogenetic factors of autoimmunity is the result of denaturation of normal endogenous proteins. This degenerative process induces a change in antigenicity and triggers an immune response against the neo-epitopes, and possibly the native proteins.